Big-spending Manchester City last week finally landed England international midfielder James Milner from Aston Villa, in a deal worth £26m, which involved disaffected former City man Stephen Ireland moving to Villa Park.

And Milner had an immediate impact on his Eastlands debut, setting up former Villa colleague Gareth Barry for the opening goal in City’s emphatic-looking 3-0 win over Liverpool on Monday night.

City completed a successful week on the pitch by beating Romanian outfit FC Timisoara 2-0 to clinch a 3-0 aggregate victory in their UEFA Europa League play-off.

But there was plenty going on off the pitch at the Liverpool game with the long-awaited Eastlands debut of club owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

 

Milner’s arrival at City has taken the club’s summer spend to £126m. And there are indications that he will not be the last arrival in this transfer window, which closes next Tuesday.

His cross for Barry set City up for their victory over a disjointed Liverpool side. City were the more clinical in front of goal and doubled their advantage when Carlos Tevez touched home Micah Richard’s goalbound header.

Tevez completed the scoring from the penalty spot after City’s new first choice keeper Joe Hart pulled off a remarkable double save to deny Liverpool’s Fernando Torres and David Ngog.

The City owner, whose personal expenditure on his club was revealed this week to have sky-rocketed past the half-billion pound mark, made an unexpected, and unexpectedly low-key arrival.

Because his private jet landed late at Manchester Airport from his Abu Dhabi base, Mansour only arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium 45 minutes before kick-off against Liverpool in front of SKY TV’s cameras.

And he was unrecognised by many as he was dressed in a suit and tie, as opposed to the more traditional Arab dress he dons in the publicity photos seen of him since he took over City a week short of two years ago.

He was, not surprisingly, greeted very warmly on his introduction to the unsuspecting crowd. He watched the match in the company of City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak and City’s chief executive Garry Cook.

And he remained after the victory to speak to manager Roberto Mancini, club captain Tevez and one of “his” major acquisitions this summer, 20-year-old Italian starlet Mario Balotelli, who missed the match with a knee injury.

Another summer signing, German international defender Jerome Boateng, will have to wait until September to make his City debut.

He injured his left knee in Germany’s recent 2-2 friendly draw in Denmark. And he aggravated the injury in comical fashion after colliding with an aeroplane drinks trolley on the flight home from Copenhagen.

And fellow defender and summer signing Aleksandr Kolarov will be on the sidelines for longer after damaging ankle ligaments in City’s EPL opener at Tottenham.

Meanwhile, the Robinho saga drags on. The unsettled Brazilian has turned down a move to Turkish side Fenerbahce, claiming that he will continue his career “in Italy or Spain.”